THE Library Theatre continue their triumphant fiftieth birthday season with a new production of Edward Albee's acerbic masterpiece, Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?

First staged in 1962, the play won the Pulitzer Prize for Albee and was famously filmed in 1966 by Mike Nichols, starring that star-crossed couple Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. The film version picked up three Oscars, with nominations in several more categories, including Best Picture.

Set in a small university town in America, it's the tale of a boozy, embittered middle-aged history professor George and his foul-mouthed, equally-embittered wife, Martha.

When the pair invite a younger couple, Nick and Honey, over one night for late-night drinks, the evening turns into a series of brutal recriminations and cruel psychological games that shine a ghastly light on George and Martha's own marriage.

I was surprised to learn from director Chris Honer that, even after all these years, Albee retains a right of veto over any casting of the play.

"Yes, I was amazed to hear that too!" laughs Ishia Bennison, who plays Martha in the Library Theatre production. "I can't imagine for a second that Edward Albee has the faintest idea who I am but it's nice to think that, for a few moments at least, he gave me a bit of thought."For George Costigan, who plays George and did his drama training here in Manchester, it's something of a dream come true to be playing the lead in a play which he freely admits to having once been completely obsessed by.

"You know how when you're a young person and you come across something that seems so fantastically `right' and you become driven by this desire to find out all you can about this particular piece of work and the man who wrote it and all of that?" he demands.

"That's what I was like with Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? I would demand other people read it, I pored over every word I could find by or about Albee, then that lead me on to something else and then that on to something else. There's a very rare recording on a four-album set of the very first Broadway production of the play and I managed to track that down after great effort and enormous expense. This play is, I firmly believe, a masterpiece and it's been a very important influence in my life. In fact, I once helped to form a drama group basically so I could insist that we did a version of the play! Of course, I was much too young and completely unsuitable for playing George but I was so utterly determined that it took them ages to convince me that I really had to be Nick!"

Fortunately, the Library's Chris Honer feels that Costigan, who now boasts an enormous list of stage and screen credits (including Bob in the film Rita, Sue And Bob Too), is now right for the part of George, quite irrespective of any obsession Costigan may once have harboured.

"I'm very fond of the Library Theatre," enthuses George, "and so to do this particular play as part of their fiftieth birthday season - well, it doesn't get much better."

But what if Albee had exercised his right of veto?

"I would have been completely crushed and devastated," he says. But he is laughing as he says it.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with George Costigan and Ishia Bennison, is on at the Library Theatre from Friday, October 25 to Saturday, November 23.